Sorry Allister, the Boks have lost their aura ... but don’t worry, it can return

ALLISTER COETZEE and some of his Springbok players appear to have a problem with their understanding of the meaning of the word “aura”.

Coetzee never stops trying to address the perception that his team’s aura is slipping, and he did so for the umpteenth time after the defeat to England. Some of his players have picked up the baton in Florence in the build- up to today’s match against Italy.

My problem with all this defence of the Bok aura is that it seems to focus on the commitment of the team and the effort that is being put in. Coetzee seems to think that anyone who tries hard has an aura. That is not true. I try hard every time I try to run the Comrades. But I’d fall over giggling if anyone thought people watching me try to run that stupid race thought I had an aura.

Aura is about how others perceive you, not how you perceive yourself. You do have a say in building an aura, as an aura is the atmosphere you create around yourself. But having stayed on in London after last week’s Test and reading through the English media and the comments of England players, it is clear that the respect mingled with fear that contributed to the aura of the Bok colours and emblem is diminishing.

Indeed, there were times both in the build- up to Twickenham, and subsequent to it, that there has been an almost patronising attitude towards the Boks coming across in the media comment. Before the game, I half- expected one of the overseas media contingent to pick up Coetzee and cuddle him like he was a koala bear. They all seemed so desperately sorry for him.

There can be no denying that the Bok aura is slipping if you pay attention to perception, but I am not so sure that the condition is as terminal as people think it is.

It was written in the days after the Twickenham match that now that the decade- long England drought against the Boks has been broken, it will be a long time before the Boks beat them again.

Clearly those who write such words have very short memories. I was here 13 months ago when it was England who were in the doldrums after bombing out of their own World Cup. Now they think they are potential world champions, and it’s not an unrealistic expectation. What made the difference for them was that they ditched the xenophobic thinking that saw the RFU ignore foreign coaching options prior to Eddie Jones.

Since the ditching of nice guy Stuart Lancaster and the appointment of the hardnosed Jones, the England trajectory has been in only one direction: upwards. There is a lot of talk about this being a poor South African playing cycle, and the spread of players across overseas clubs doesn’t help. But if Jones had been approached to coach the Boks and had accepted – not such an unrealistic thought as he was going to coach the Stormers – it is unlikely the Boks would be anywhere near the crisis they are in now.

And if someone like Jones took over the Boks after Christmas, I wouldn’t bet against them being in a place next Christmas not dissimilar to where England are now.

If that sounds like pie in the sky, ask the Proteas how quickly the wheel can turn. I was at the Wanderers earlier this year when Stuart Broad blew them away in not much more than a session. Now they are thumping Australia in Australia.

Mention of the Australian cricket team brings me back to the subject of aura. Australia had aura when Shane Warne, the Waugh brothers, Glenn McGrath, Ricky Ponting, Matthew Hayden, etc were in their pomp. But they don’t have the world- class players in such prolific num- bers anymore so that aura has slipped.

To me, it looked like it may have taken the South African cricketers a day to figure out that the Aussie aura has diminished even further since last the two teams met in a Test ( Cape Town 2014 when Mitchell Johnson made the aura all on his own), and since then the Aussies have been a gathering of lambs led to the slaughter.

Their aura may be back in time. It is impossible to imagine that the Australians won’t at some stage get their production line of world- class players to work again. And if the South African rugby administrators do the right thing, the Bok aura will be back too.

Anyone who feels that loss of aura is permanent should have been with me in the Twickenham press box on that bleak northern autumn day in 2002 when the Boks were smashed 53- 3. The team coached by Rudolf Straeuli had lost 21- 6 to Scotland the week before and thrashed by France before that. There was no aura about that Bok team.

However, when Jake White took over the coaching reins 18 months later, the Bok aura quickly returned and the green and gold was feared and respected again. That can happen again. The people who administer rugby in this country just need to get it right.